Flashback: Diana Pregnant With Harry

On February 11th, 1984, the Princess of Wales undertook her first official overseas visit. Diana flew to Norway and her visit was a success. 

Upon returning to the UK, Buckingham Palace announced that Diana and Charles were expecting their second baby who would be born in around September. 

The Princess looked beautiful in her red evening gown and still to this day the photos of that evening in Oslo are widely used to show a glowing, maturing royal princess. 

Enjoy the look at the unborn Harry, just as today everyone is staring at his wife Meghan's abdomen for signs of a bump.

Chapel Royal St James's Palace

Prince Louis Arthur Charles of Cambridge will be Christened in the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace on Monday- 9th July. 

Louis is the third child and second son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and was born at St Mary's Hospital on the  23rd April this year. 

The Chapel Royal was also the venue for Louis' brother Prince George's christening in 2013 and the Duchess was confirmed there before her marriage to Prince William. The body of William's mother Diana, Princess of Wales rested there in the days leading up to her funeral in September, 1997. 

From https://www.royal.uk/chapelroyal 

Royal events at the chapel

Many Royal weddings have taken place in the Chapel, including that of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg on 10 February 1840. Their eldest daughter, Victoria, Princess Royal, was also married there in 1858 to Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, later the German Emperor Friedrich III. In 1893 the Duke of York and Princess Victoria Mary of Teck (later King George V and Queen Mary) were married in the Chapel.

Most recently, Prince George was baptised at the Chapel Royal on 23 October 2013 in a ceremony attended by four generations of the Royal Family, including The Queen, The Prince of Wales and The Duke of Cambridge. 

Photos below taken by blog author in July, 2017.

H.M. The Queen's Official Birthday

The Queen's official birthday is this coming Saturday and Trooping the Colour will be held as is tradition.

Senior members of the Royal Family travel from Buckingham Palace on horseback or horse drawn carriage along The Mall to Horse Guards Parade for Trooping the Colour. They then return to Buckingham Palace for the flypast.

This year Prince George and Princess Charlotte are expected to make an appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony to watch the RAF flypast and wave to the crowds below. Prince Louis who was born on April 23rd is still too young to join his older siblings. This will be George's 4th appearance and Charlotte's 3rd.

I witnessed the spectacle in 1992 when Prince Harry joined his mother Diana, Princess of Wales and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother for the trip to and from Horse Guards Parade. Older brother Prince William was away at Ludgrove Prep, his boarding school at the time.

If you would like to see photos of William and Harry attending the event in their younger years, have a look at my blog post from last year:

https://williamandharryschildren.blogspot.com/2017/06/wales-family-at-trooping-colour.html

From royal.uk website:

What happens during Trooping the Colour?

Once The Queen has arrived at Horse Guard's Parade in Whitehall, she is greeted by a Royal salute and carries out an inspection of the troops, who are fully trained and operational soldiers wearing the ceremonial uniform of red tunics and bearskin hats.
The Queen used to attend on horseback herself, but in recent years has travelled by carriage.
After the military bands have performed, the escorted Regimental Colour, or flag, is processed down the ranks of soldiers. Over one hundred words of command are used by the Officer in Command of the Parade to direct the several hundred soldiers.
Once the Foot Guards have marched past The Queen, she rides back to Buckingham Palace at the head of the soldiers, before taking the salute again at the Palace from a dais. 
Her Majesty is then joined by other Members of the Royal Family on the balcony at Buckingham Palace to watch a fly-past by the Royal Air Force. A 41-gun salute is also fired in Green Park to mark the occasion. 

Horse Guards Parade

Happy 3rd Birthday Charlotte

Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana of Cambridge was born at St. Mary's Hospital, London on 2nd May, 2015.

Charlotte is the only daughter and second child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Catherine and William's firstborn, Prince George arrived in 2013. 

Baby Charlotte was christened on 5th July, 2015 at St Mary Magdalene, Sandringham. It is the same place her paternal grandmother the Hon. Diana Spencer was christened in 1961.

The young princess has spent most of her early years between Anmer Hall in Norfolk and the family's home Apartment 1A, Kensington Palace. She has been on two royal tours- Canada in 2016 and Poland and Germany in 2017. 

In January Charlotte commenced preschool at Willcocks Nursery School in Kensington. The princess also learns tennis at the Hurlingham Club, has shown an interest in horseriding and is learning some Spanish from her nanny Maria Teresa Borrallo.

George and Charlotte were joined by baby brother Prince Louis Arthur Charles last week- 23rd April. 

Her next big outing will be at uncle Prince Harry's wedding to Ms Meghan Markle on 19th of May.

Happy Birthday Princess Charlotte!

Cambridge Baby Essentials # 1

The Duchess of Cambridge is due to give birth to baby number 3 next month. Catherine has been very busy since the start of the year but is planned to finish up work after her next engagement on St Patrick's Day, 17th March.

Baby George 2013

With that in mind we begin a series of feature articles about the arrival of new Cambridge prince or princess. We start with the Lindo Wing. 
As with Prince George and Princess Charlotte's births, the Duchess will give birth in the Lindo Wing- a private maternity unit of St Mary's Hospital in Paddington. 

Charlotte 2015

As well as the first two Cambridge babies, the Lindo Wing has been the birthplace of Princes William and Harry of Wales, Princess Anne's children Peter and Zara Phillips, Lord Frederick and Lady Gabriella Windsor, and the Gloucestor children- the Earl of Ulster, Lady Rose and Lady Davina Windsor. 

This author visited the Lindo Wing several months ago and it was a thrill to see the famous front doors which open to reveal the world's first glimpse of each new baby.

The front steps actually lead from the Lindo onto a very narrow street- you may remember toddler William in 1984 and little George in 2015 walking along the same street to meet their new siblings. 

Opposite the hospital is a cafe and behind that is the railway tracks leading to Paddington Station ( as in THAT BEAR!). There is also a canal next to the station and car parks. Not very glamorous!

The hospital itself offers parents the benefits of a world class teaching hospital but with the care of their own specialist obstetrician. 

Catherine is cared for by doctors Alan Farthing and Guy Thorpe- Beeston. They have seen her through her three pregnancies and managed her hyperemesis gravidarum each time. 

William 1982

Harry 1984

 

copyright blog author

Obstetrician Alan Farthing

Prince Harry Engaged

Prince Henry of Wales has announced his engagement to American actress Ms. Meghan Markle. The couple has known each other for sixteen months after being introduced by a mutual friend in London.

Harry, 33 and Meghan, 36 are to be married in the spring of 2018 and more details of the wedding will be released in due course.No doubt they will have to plan the wedding date around the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy due date in April. Catherine was overdue with her first two babies so this will be tricky. 

Prince Harry presented Ms Markle with an engagement ring made of two diamonds from his late mother Diana, Princess of Wales plus a diamond from Botswana where the couple has holidayed.

Meghan and Harry were photographed by the media in the sunken garden at Kensington Palace. This is the same garden that was transformed this last summer with a beautiful collection of Diana's favourite flowers to mark the 20th anniversary of her death.

The couple will live in Nottingham Cottage in Kensington Palace which was once the home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge before they renovated Apartment 1A. It is expected that an apartment at the Palace will be made available to Prince Harry and then modified to suit his needs.

As this blog chronicles the lives of the children of both Princes William and Harry, no doubt we will be covering a few more royal babies in the coming years.

Charlotte Loves To Dance

Princess Charlotte of Cambridge loves dancing her parents revealed on Wednesday. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry were visiting the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace.

The garden has been specially planted with the favourite flowers of the princes' late mother Diana, Princess of Wales. It was 20 years on Thursday since the Princess was killed in a car accident in Paris at the age of 36. Her sons were 15 and 12 at the time.

Representatives of charities close to the heart of the late Princess were present. Director of the English National Ballet, Tamara Rojo was speaking with Catherine about dance when the Duchess revealed that Princess Charlotte is an avid dancer, "She absolutely loves it."

Charlotte who is also an keen horse rider seems to be a very busy and active two year old. Growing up at the family's country home Amner Hall has no doubt been a wonderful thing for Charlotte and big brother George. 

The Cambridges will now be based primarily at their Kensington Palace apartment. Prince George will be starting school this coming Thursday in Battersea, London and William and Catherine are stepping up their royal roles as the Queen and Prince Philip age. Charlotte too is thought to be starting nursery school later this year.

New Poignant Photo

Kensington Palace posted this photo on their twitter account today. A new shot and very sweet. The boys along with the Duchess visited the Sunken Garden at the Palace today.

Today The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry will pay tribute to their mother Diana, Princess of Wales. pic.twitter.com/zkfhfPxcsY

— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) August 30, 2017

Diana's Dresses

There is so much comment surrounding the 20th anniversary of Diana, Princess of Wales's death on 31st August. 

Although this blog is a chronicle of Diana's grandchildren of today and possibly of the future, I was a fan from the age of 10. So I recently travelled to London and saw the Diana exhibition at Kensington Palace and the gorgeous sunken garden planted in white to honour her. 

Here are a few of the iconic dresses I saw on display. The one that I found most moving was the Bill Pashley designed brown tweed outfit that the new princess wore to a photocall at Balmoral during her honeymoon. 

For me, it brought back all the memories of the early marriage, babies, walkabouts, Shy Di and adoring crowds. Waiting every morning for the daily papers to see if "Di" had been on an engagement the day before. 

I saw the princess in Australia many times and a few times in London. I was lucky enough to shake her hand and have a quick chat in Melbourne. I felt her death like that of a friend although of course she wasn't. But that is the connection she made with the everyday person. Which is why she was so loved and mourned with such sadness.

Of course, there were stunning evening gowns ( Elvis dress and the Travolta dress!) and later dresses that the princess wore in those Mario Testino photos. 

By then the glow of the early years had gone but a new, confident woman was emerging to take on politically fraught causes such as landmine eradication. Prince Harry has picked up that cause. 

Here are some photos from the exhibition. Also shots of the sunken garden that William, Catherine and Harry will visit on the 30th August.

Buckingham Palace Tribute To Diana

The Summer Opening of Buckingham Palace State Rooms features a wonderful display of Diana, Princess of Wales's study and belongings. I visited on the first day of opening and can thoroughly recommend.

There will be a special display at the Summer Opening of #BuckinghamPalace as a tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales: pic.twitter.com/5PRi9Hamuk

— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) July 21, 2017

Summer In Balmoral

William at Balmoral 1983

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and children have been spending some of their summer holiday at Balmoral. 

 The Queen's beloved Scottish highland retreat is where the royal family gather each year. The Duke and Duchess attended a church service at Crathie Kirk with other members of the family last Sunday.

William, Catherine and Prince Harry will be back at Kensington Palace in time for a special visit to the Palace's Sunken Garden. The garden has been transformed this year in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales. The 20th anniversary of Diana's death falls on 31st August.

copyright: blog author

William and Harry had organised for the princess's favourite flowers to be planted in white with pink accents. The warm spring meant the flowers bloomed early. I visited the Palace and garden only a few weeks ago and it was still stunning.

Diana used to walk through the garden during her many years living at Kensington Palace and came to know the gardeners. Some of these staff members will be present on the 30th when Diana's sons and daughter-in-law Catherine will visit. 

I also visited the Diana Her Fashion Story exhibition at the palace and will write a separate post about this wonderfully exciting event for Diana fans.

copyright: blog author

Charlotte And George A Hit In Poland

After leaving a warm and sunny summer's day here in London, the Cambridge family travelled to Warsaw where it was chilly and overcast.

The weather didn't dampen the enthusiasm with which the royal family was greeted. Princess Charlotte was dressed in a pretty floral dress and was carried by her mother the Duchess of Cambridge. 

Prince George was reluctant to leave the private aircraft and had to be coaxed and firmly led down the stairs. The little prince behaved in a similar way when he arrived in Canada last year. It seems that whilst his destiny is to meet and greet thousands and thousands of people in his role of eventual Prince of Wales and ultimately king his natural inclination is to shy away. 

No doubt, Willliam and Catherine will expose George to royal duties and events gradually over the coming years, just as Diana and Charles raised William and Harry.

Enjoy these early photos of the Poland and Germany royal tour.

Wales Family At The Trooping The Colour

Next Saturday the Royal Family will be out in force to mark the occasion of The Queen's official birthday parade- Trooping The Colour.
Royal fans are looking forward to seeing George and Charlotte watching the R.A.F. flypast from the Buckingham Palace balcony. 
Here are photos of the Wales Family from Diana's first Trooping the Colour a month before the Royal Wedding to right throughout her marriage including the arrival of her sons William and Harry. 
This author was present in the crowd outside the Palace for Diana's last Trooping in June 1992. 
As George has worn a number of his father's outfits, I wonder if he fits into William's sailor suit?
Enjoy the trip down memory lane.

1981

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1983

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1992